The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1887-12-23
CUSTOM HOUSE CLERKS.
Difficulty Of Com putting Compound Dutiss
Driven Mad by Figures.

(
There is one department in the custom
house for which there are not many as
pirants, though the pay is good. 1t is the
iiquidatng department. Ihe work Is
hard and puZzhng and it requires man
of peculiar temperament to make his way
| in il. The liquidating office is Aie place
where the final calculation Of the duties
to be paid on. imported goods Is made.
When the goods are first entered rough
estimate Of the duties as per invoice Is
made and the duties are deposited. Then,
after the work Of the surveyors Office IL
completed aud the appraiser has examined
the goods and placed on the invoices their
classification and rate Of duty, the work
Of the liquidating Office begins.
One Of the liquidating clerks, IN speak
/ ing to reporter about the work OF the
office, said.
TO one who is not acquainted by act
u0l experience with the work, it is hard
matter 10 explain it. have never known
such difficult work. In the first place the
invoices come to you in every known Ian
guage, and the measures OF quantity and
value are expressed in the same tongue as
that in which the invoice is written. All
these in the first place, have 10 be re-
duced TO American measures and values,
aud IS trying work. Then a man in our
department has to be a walking encyclo-
pcdia.of commercial and trade technical
tics
zone Of the most pulling things in
our work is the figuring out OF the duty
on articles which pay compound tax.
Take for instance dress goods The tax
is cents yard and 81 per cent al
valorem, or 7cents yard and 40 per cent,
according 10 whether the value is over OF
under % cents a yard. Say we have a
consignment of 1000 yards of dress goods
from England which are billed in the in
voice at shillings and 6 pence, less 81
a favorite discount less per cent. less :
per cent, and with charges say Of e12
The charges must be deducted and dis
counts taken OFF in order 10 find out just
what the cost per yard is and on this the
duty is assessed. This is simple opera
ton compared to many we have.
On all worsted goods there is a specific
and al yalOrem duty for goods weighing
under four ounces ya-d and another
for goods over four ounces, and on some
other wooden goods we have to iud out
whether they cost 40. % or 90 cents 4
pound, because different rates of duty are
charged have had sometimes TO make
as many as twenty-five different calcula-
tons TO ascertain what the rate Of duty
was on certain line of goods. We can't
20 by the appraisers calculation at all;
his work is done hurriedly in many cases,
and We can't afford to trust him.
About the most tedious work we have
is on invoices Of glass. Ii comes Ia all
sizes aud weights, and there IS a different
duty for each size aud weight. | lave
known Of invoices that required the max
ing of 10000 figures to asoertainthe duty.
sugar is another tedious article to figure
on It is graded by polariscope test, and
different rate Of duty is charged for every
degree above -.
Wines, liquors and tobacco all have
compound duties, which, as | said, give
Us the hardest work. The work never
gets easy, as puzzlers are liable to come
up at any time There are men in the
Office rho have been there fifteen years,
and they will frequently come across some
thing in an invoice which they have never
met before Ii is like sitting down 10
solve a Chinese puzzle aud keeping al Il
for eight or ten hours every day
1T helps man very little 10 be
mathematician. Young Mather, who
committed suicide, was in the Office, aud
was a splendid mathematician, but lac was
Of a nervous temperament, and don't
doubt that pulling over some OF those in
formal over Or under four ounce invoices
drove him crazy New York Press